Today is the first (real) day of March Madness. Oh, how my former self LOVED March Madness. The gluttony of competition. The plethora of hope. Rooting for the underdogs. Keeping score, talking smack, spending your day at a sports bar. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Or it was.

2007. You can see the games on the screen behind me. And yes, the photographer (Ian) was drunk and yes, that’s why it looks like this.

2008. A particularly memorable blowout I wanted to capture.

which probably seemed funnier at the time because of all of this…

2009 – I kept the tradition alive even after my son was born. He was days old when the brackets came out. Without regard for sleep (silly, silly girl) I completed mine in the middle of the night during a long stretch of feedings, trusty laptop by my side for research. Do I have enough upsets? Where are my Cinderellas? My favorites? My unbeatables? I looked at records, strength of divisions, seniority. And sometimes I just loved the mascot. It was a fun game and I was in it to win it.

2010 – I lost a little steam. I had been sleep deprived for over a year and it just didn’t seem as fun. But I filled out a bracket before the deadline. Ian and I enjoyed taunting each other at home, if not at a sports bar.

2011 – I had a daughter who was days old. No way in hell I had the time or the energy to put into a bracket. We watched a few of the games. I was sad that I had nothing invested.

2012 – I am going on 3 years of sleep deprivation. I didn’t even have a pang of regret when I saw the brackets come out this past weekend. I am fine with sitting these out. For now.

But what about those things we gave up with little fanfare? Here’s my top 5:

1. March Madness. RIP. 1980s-2010s

2. Grooming. When did I stop shaving my legs? When I was pregnant? First or second? Definitely before I let weeks go by without a visit to my local threading salon but after I gave up on highlighting my hair.

3. Snoozing. As in your alarm clock. In college I hit the snooze bar for hours (sorry Liz!). I don’t even own one anymore. My kids are my alarm clock now, and I still haven’t found their snooze button.

4. Travel. I don’t mean the air plane kind. I mean the completely unnecessary kind. Like, ‘let’s travel through 17 neighborhoods to get that apple sausage bacon you love.’ Now it’s ‘what’s close, has no wait and customers that won’t spit on our stroller?’

I miss the movies. (You know, grown up movies, in a theatre, where you can sit and watch the whole time without getting up once to get cheese sticks/drinks/binkys/blankies/snacks for someone else. Unless you run out of popcorn or need a Big Gulp refill.

Mine are obvious: I miss the solo bathroom trips, being able to go somewhere without packing a book bag full of snacks and drinks, sleeping in my own bed all night, being able to nurse my hangover by watching a Lifetime movie marathon from morning to night….And definitely a moment of silence.